Nintendo is going beyond the box

Nintendo is going to mobile platforms beyond their own hardware. In a stunning announcement for Mario fans, Nintendo confirmed that they will be working with DeNA, a major player in the Japanese mobile market, to create games for phones and tablets based on Nintendo’s established properties within the year. According to the investor copy, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata explained that while the company’s software sales remain strong on dedicated hardware, they could no longer ignore the mobile market.

Very simply put, it is structurally the same as when Nintendo, which was founded 125 years ago when there were no TVs, started to aggressively take advantage of TV as a communication channel. Now that smart devices have grown to become the window for so many people to personally connect with society, it would be a waste not to use these devices.

In the same announcement, Iwata offered proof that the company was not abandoning their hardware by revealing that they are working on a new home console, codenamed “NX”, but that it was too early to discuss details.